Home
Surnames
Obits
Cemetery
Marriage
Census
Bio's
Birth Records
Death Records
News Stories
Becky
Photos
Military
Links
My Tree
Elizabeth Ann Hobbs Foster
Betsy's father was killed by a falling tree before she was born and her mother died at Betsy's birth. The place where Kit was killed, Elizabeth died and Betsy was born was a logging camp in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. When Betsy was two or three weeks old, her aunt by marriage, Anna Pierce Hobbs rode a mule from Hardin County Illinois to Cape Girardeau, Missouri to pick her up and take her to raise.
Roxie Tyer, a granddaughter, remembered that Betsy told her the trip back to Hardin County took three weeks because the baby (Betsy) became sick on the journey. Anna Hobbs was a midwife and herbal doctor who became famous in later years as the discoverer of the cause for milk sickness from which many, many women (including Abraham Lincoln's mother) died in the late 19th century. She had an old Indian woman named Aunt Shawnee living in her home and when Anna had to be away doctoring or gathering herbs, Aunt Shawnee cared for Betsy and the other children.
Isaac and Anna Hobbs raised Betsy as if she were their own and she remained with Anna even after Isaac Hobbs death in1845.
Myrtle Tyer Karber, another granddaughter of Betsy, remembered that Betsy smoked a corn cob pipe and when Myrtle asked her about it, she said she learned to smoke because it was her job when she was young, to get down at the hearth and start Mr. Pierce's pipe. Mr. Pierce was the elderly father of Anna Pierce Hobbs Bigsby.
Betsy was a very pretty girl with brown hair and brown eyes. The 1850 census for Hardin County shows both Horace and Betsy, who married in 1849, living with Anna and her second husband Asen Bigsby. During their marriage, Betsy not only kept house and raised her children, she also wove carpets, blankets and cloth which she sold in the community.
Horace Foster, a great grandson, remembers that she named every new child born into the family Horace if the parents would let her. She was responsible for naming Horace Foster, Horace Belt and Horace Patton among others. Horace was raised on his father's farm north of Elizabethtown. His mother died when he was 5 and he was raised by his Aunt Polly who was his father's second wife. When he was 18, his father died. At the age of 20, he married Betsy Hobbs.
On 7 Oct 1856, just 9 days after the birth of his second son, Tom, he purchased 160 acres from the Government comprising the southwest quarter of section 28, in Rock Creek Precinct, Hardin County, Illinois. Later, they moved to the Mountain Place and developed a large farm. He built a double log house and there he and Betsy raised their eight children who lived to maturity.
In 1935, the old log house stood between the Tower and Hobbs Cemetery. At that time, the place was owned by Bennie Taylor, son of R. F. Taylor. Horace Jr. was a farmer and tanner. He also made boxes, barrels and baskets and shipped them to New Orleans on flat barges.
Shortly after their marriage, Betsy and Horace were baptized by Elder Thompson of the Christian Church at Big Spring in Hardin County Illinois and remained members of Christ Church all of their lives. Horace was chosen as an elder of the Christian Church on September 14, 1863. He was fully ordained as such and allowed to administer all ordinances of the Gospel. He continued to preach and have charge of several churches during the eighteen sixties and seventies and then, feeling that the church needed an educated ministry, he ceased to take care of churches as a regular pastor but gave much of his time to the church and frequently filled appointments for others when requested.
In February 1880, they were prominent among the founders of Christ Church at Rock Creek. That church built for large assemblies, meetings called by Moderator Oxford, to reform the lawless wilderness, stood on shores of Laughing Rock Creek, hence was named the Rock Creek Church. In his early Christian life it was the custom for each denomination to try to gain new members, even if it had to be done in debate and he loved to debate the scriptures. His main contention was that the Christian scriptures contain the whole plan of salvation and anything added in name, word or deed was not only wrong, but sinful and anything left out was an error of omission.
Among many others, in Sep 1891, he laid to rest in Irby Cemetery, the infant babe of Ellis and Lydia Jenkins of Big Creek and in 1893, he conducted grave side services for Toby Hess at Irby Cemetery.
Horace and Betsy raised their grandson, Enoch Foster who was born in 1885 and after the death of his father in 1892, often had their grandson, Charlie Laxton living with them. After their son Isaac and 3rd wife Della Belt were divorced in 1898, Owen Foster lived with them for two or three years before going to live with his father about 1901.
Horace was a kind man and over the years he often consigned notes for his friends and family who were in difficulty and needed funds. This practice eventually caused him to lose his farm. After he lost his farm about 1898, they moved to a small farm southeast of Rock Creek school and Horace farmed in the bottom land near New Haven in White County.
Their son, Isaac Foster urged them to move to town and offered to buy a house for them to live in near his own home in New Haven. About 1905, Horace and Betsy left their home and went to live in New Haven Village in Gallatin County Illinois. Horace Jr. was a quiet inoffensive man, truthful, honest and upright in all his dealings with his fellow man and lived a wholly blameless life.
Horace died 1 Dec 1915 in New Haven, Gallatin County, Illinois, and was buried in Smith Cemetery near Orange Grove school, Emma Township, White County, Illinois. After the death of her husband, Betsy visited various of her children but primarily lived with her daughter, Julie Blagg, in Carmi Illinois. Betsy died 21 Jan 1923 in Carmi, White County, Illinois, and was buried 23 Jan1923 in Smith/Orange Grove Cemetery, Emma Township, White County, Illinois.
|